A controversial Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday morning that reinstated an archaic colonial law criminalizing homosexuality incited outrage among activists and gay-rights supporters in India. Hundreds gathered at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi’s popular protest hub, to protest the ruling. A truly mixed crowd, many of the protesters were not from the LGBT community. They came in hordes from universities and colleges to champion civil liberties. “This is not about homosexuality but about democratic rights,” said Samita Raj, a 19-year-old student at the protest. “And the right to be.”

The mood at Jantar Mantar resembled a different moment last year, when the youth of India had congregated to demand justice for the gang rape and murder of a young medical intern. It was a comforting sign that from a fringe issue, India’s gay movement has become the subject of mainstream debate and mass support. “Today when I speak to young people in colleges, they say, ‘We know how you feel.’ And that’s a huge achievement for the movement,” Gautam Bhan, a 33-year-old gay-rights activist, told TIME. “The ruling cannot set aside the gains we have made in the last decade, especially after 2009.” The Supreme Court in Wednesday’s ruling had said that changing a law was the responsibility of the government.

Whether theDelhi High Court had overstepped its mandate four years back is a matter of debate. Its historic judgment in 2009, which decriminalized homosexuality in the country, was something of a watershed moment for gay rights in India.Many more young people had come out of the closet. Harish Iyer, a Mumbai-based equal-rights activist, says there was a more than 100% increase in people wanting to come out of the closet after 2009. Iyer says that before 2009 he used to receive around two distress calls a week from people wanting to come out. Now he receives around six calls a day.“What are you doing now? Pushing them right back in?” he asks. “It’s not going to work. People who are out will be out louder and stronger.”

The other surprising takeaway from the ruling was the unexpected show of solidarity from the Indian government. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said the ruling flew in the face of a “modern liberal India.”

“The high court had wisely removed an archaic, repressive and unjust law that infringed on the basic human rights enshrined in our constitution,” Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said in a statement. “This constitution has given us a great legacy, a legacy of liberalism and openness, that enjoin us to combat prejudice and discrimination of any kind.”

Law Minister Kapil Sibal, after an initial noncommittal reaction, later tweeted that the government was considering its options to restore the 2009 verdict. “It gives us great hope,” says Anjali Gopalan, founder and executive director of the Naz Foundation, an Indian nonprofit that works on HIV-AIDS and sexual health, who had filed the original lawsuit in the Delhi High Court. “A lot of young people have come out of the closet post-2009. We can’t push them back in.”

While politicians and activists mull their options, India’s LGBT community is emerging stronger from the ruling. “We feel much emboldened by the fact that we are a heterogeneous crowd now,” says Iyer. “Also, what do we have to lose now? You have pushed me down so low that from here on I can only look upwards.”

How dare they take the moral ground when they themselves are corrupt in and out. They cannot decide for anyone. If they give such verdicts i feel really bad for the people who fought for our freedom. What kind of freedom is this where an individual cannot express himself/herself freely. They better take the verdict back as they are going to be in a lot of trouble otherwise...

Most of them aren't trying to bother other people. Even if you're not gay, you should be able to imagine how it's an affront to one's dignity to be told that your relationship is such an abomination that you could be thrown in jail alongside thieves and murderers for having love.

hahaha their tradition is strongly rooted not even invasions and long time colonizations by different countries changed their ways! for thay i salute them but not giving way to gays is unacceptable well that includes arrange marriage and monkies invading their department of justies hahhaa

Ingesting food via the mouth is common and natural.If smeone wishes to eat through the nose,it must be called unnatural as such a practise is a health hazard to the person.If this person insists that this risky mode of ingestion is a personal matter,he or she may independently go ahead and persist with it.But cannot demand the constitution of a law to legalise the act.The supreme court verdict is a welcome move that supports the laws of nature.

I don´t know how about you but I don´t live for sex and so I am not talking about my sex life in public. i have no reason to tell other people how I do it or don´t want to know how other poeple do it, if they have same partner or they want to have sex with anybody who is available. If someone feels he need to shout it out loud he/she is gay, why not but why bother other people. Especially in the country like India where it´s now criminalized. Let them do it without telling anybody else. Do you see any change in the future? I don´t - they will do it again - the wrong way... :-(

Good thing you're not gay then, eh? Social progress happens because people try to enact change - not because they sit at home and hope, some day in the future, it'll be okay to live normally again. India has enough problems as it is, and its only taken a step backwards. While I do agree that sexual orientation is nothing to be proud of, I also think that somebody shouldn't have to live in shame because they want a relationship with another consenting adult of the same sex.

It was decriminalized in India for several years. You're not even making a good argument - there aren't roving execution squads in New Delhi, so far as I know, and there probably aren't going to be serious repercussions for most protesters. What you're essentially is saying is that, because the justice system is broken, its victims should stay home with their mouths closed. I can think of a few things that have happened in India recently that wound up causing a public furor, that resulted in some reforms, or, at the very least, a massive challenging of injustice.

OK, go to India, protest with them, tell everybody you are not gay but support gays and then quietly wait until some armed forces find you, arrrest you, torture you etc. India is not a country where public have any power or at least in this case. Be proud to be gay in the country where it´s accepted, in India it´s criminal so beware your taste...

So they should sit at home and accept that India just backpedaled on progress? I'm not gay, but if I were in India, I'd be out on the streets with everybody else. Regardless of how often this law is enforced, nobody should have the threat of jail being hung over them because they're a man who prefers men or a woman who likes women.

Hey if it happened the divine meant it and if it fades the divine meant that too. Look at lifes examples. We check out the far extremes if only in sight or imagination to see if we prefer but then return to balance. Like cornering on a bike one experiences the corner but is still always i perfect balance. The corner is an experience. Gays are those enjoying that experience. As fhe urge appeared so may it naturally fade away as generations awaken to inner balance. THIS is harmoniously realizing all things are here for as long as the divine wishes and fade precisely when required, rellaced by more enjoyable and fulfilling experiences as humans evolve continuously, eternally towards more and better in perception u derstanding and enjoyment. Ignoring that which you do not desire is as simple as focusing your valuable mind energy and considerable personal power on something that lifts and empowers you to feel good and more importantly attract more good things people and events. Maintain focus on these uplifting things and the undesired fade from your awareness then your life them others as society adjusts back to global harmonic balance to reflect spiritual balance for all. Cheers and sagacity for all.

Appeal to nature is a logical fallacy. Not everything that is natural is good (such as poison, suffering, pain, death, and so on.) while not everything that is unnatural is bad (the computer you are using right now wouldn't be possible without synthetic, i.e. man-made materials). Please try to use critical thinking to evaluate things, not defensive mechanisms.

Nobody is challenging the Supreme Court, they are challenging the verdict, recently UN high-commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Pillay said this verdict is a departure from Supreme Court's long standing tradition of just judgements. So there you go...

If they don't talk and shout, they will never be able to stand for themselves and will be depicted as 'criminals' forever. They are proud of themselves not and your sexual orientation is part of your identity.

It is a democracy and people are just doing what a functional democracy should respect, they are making themselves heard and not just as some benign white noise but petitions have been filed, review requests have been submitted etc.

Homosexuality has been around in all cultures long before any religion could impose their hateful messages on to the people. Homosexuality is also found in most species that inhabit this planet. Could you please enlighten me as to how this is unnatural.